Hello ILs, I would like to begin with I am a diabetic from 10 yrs and I am 24. I am saying this coz I did my treatments initially when I was in India and I was too young to take care of myself. Now I am getting treated by a doctor in the US and things are totally different. Here I am expected to put 4 insulin shots a day and check my blood sugar every time I eat something (anything).. I am supposed to do something that is called carb counting and also correction or sliding scale. These two terms have changed everything for me in both good and bad ways. For those who are not aware of what they mean, carb counting is to count the number of carbohydrates I eat every meal. This is the one thing that shoots your BG (blood glucose) high. Its not the SUGAR. I was told that one aunty who came to visit her family here from India would eat anything but just not add sugar in her coffee. That's not how it works. I was given a book which is like a pocket dictionary called calorie king which has the amount of Calories, protiens and Carbs in everything thats available in the US. Starting from the restaurant menus to the US people's idlis (BLAND sandwiches) everything is there. I have to count the carbs looking at that book and record it. I am told by my doc to shoot 1 unit of insulin for every 3 grams of carbs I eat. The other word I mentioned was correction or sliding scale. This means I have to check for my BG before a meal. If it is in the range above the normal which is 70 to 130 then I am given another table of values by my doctor which says for example anything from 150 to 200 you have to add 2 units to your carb count. That means if i eat a sandwich which is 33 carbs and i have a BG of 190 before breakfast I have to inject with (33/3) = 11 + 2 (correction) for that meal. This might sound irrelevant here. But I need help from you guys, coz I am an Indian and I don't eat sandwiches for breakfast. I eat idli with sambar and thakali chutney or something of that kind which is not there in my pocket dictionary. Please help me find anything that fits this situation. I have been using dailyburn to do this job on an approximate level. But I need something better. Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. The information above is to only let people know how things work here for a diabetic and to seek help for the Carb count. Thanks in advance and apology for the long post.
workingstudent, tough job. i feel livestrong.com's daily plate has our indian menu in the list..check it out..atleast a approximate number is what you can get..almost all our meals are recorded..idli, dosa, pongal...
Thanks Shanvy, I have tried livestrong.com too. But I need something that I can also sync with my iphone. Coz if i am outside eating meal with a bunch of friends I use dailyburn to check coz my profile syncs on my phone. Livestrong does not do a very good job with syncing info from my account to the phone. But anyways thanks for the suggestion!
